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With gratitude to key readers and friends, the preface frames childhood as the decisive force behind later life, and presents writing as the act that opens one gate to another inside the labyrinth of memory.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/","Literature",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/city-gate-open-up-preface-my-beijing/505689/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/city-gate-open-up-preface-my-beijing/505689.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Maya Linwood","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-04",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",8,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What triggers the author to write the book in the preface?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The author’s return to Beijing after the father falls seriously ill ignites the impulse to rebuild a lost Beijing through writing.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the author describe the relationship between writing and memory?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Writing awakens the process of remembering, where passages within memory’s labyrinth lead into one another and each gate opens onto another gate.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Why does the author emphasize childhood and adolescence?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Because those pivotal years shape or decide nearly everything that happens later, long after, and returning to them feels like an excavation of early life.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},505689,1791362720,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,91,95,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":26,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},962084928432,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","City Gate, Open Up  \nBei Dao, wearing his father ’s sheepskin coat, 1970  \nFor Tiantian and Dodo  \nCity gate, city gate how tall are you? Three hundred and sixty feet tall!  \nWhat sort oflock is that on you? A giant iron-diamond lock!  \nCity gate, city gate will you open up or not?  \n—FROM A NUR SERY RHYME  \nContents  \nPREFACE : My Beijing  \nLight and Shadow  \nSmells  \nSounds  \nToys and Games  \nFurniture  \nVinyl Records  \nFishing  \nSwimming  \nRaising Rabbits  \nThree Never Old Hutong No. 1  \nQian Ayi  \nReading  \nGoing to Shanghai  \nElementary School Beijing Middle No. 13  \nBeijing Middle No. 4  \nThe Great Linkup  \nFather  \nTranslator ’s acknowledgments  \nAbout the author  \nPREFACE  \nMy Beijing  \nT  \nO WARD THE END of 2001, my father fell seriously ill and I returned to a Beijing that had been cut off from me for nearly  \nthirteen years. Nothing could have prepared me—it was unthinkable—Beijing had completely changed: Everything was difficult to recognize, nothing familiar. I was a foreigner in my own hometown.  \nI was born in Beijing and spent half my life there—the momentous years of childhood and adolescence. My experiences of growing up are intimately linked with Beijing. And they’ve vanished as the city that once was has also vanished.  \nIt was during my return that the impulse to write this book ignited: I would use the written word to rebuild another city, rebuild my Beijing; I would use my Beijing to refute the Beijing of today. In my city, time flows backward, spring revives dead trees, vanished smells waft back with sounds and beams of light, demolished temples are restored with courtyard residences, along hutong streets, tiled roof rows rise in waves toward a low, low horizon line, pigeon-tail whistles echo through the deep blue sky, children appreciate the seasons’ transformations, residents are sustained by an inner compass. Welcoming the drifting travelers of the four seas, welcoming the homeless solitary souls, welcoming all inquisitive guests, I open my city gate.  \nThis long-consuming task of rebuilding and reconstruction—I feel it’s almost impossible to achieve. Memory—selective, ambiguous, exclusive—can subsist even in a state of prolonged hibernation. Yet writing awakens  \nthe process of remembering: Within memory’s labyrinth, one passage leads into another passage, one gate opens up to face another gate.  \nChildhood and adolescence are of enormous significance in one’s life; it can even be said that those pivotal years shape or decide nearly everything else that happens after, often long after. Looking back into the wellspring of one’s early years is akin to a kind of prehistoric excavation, accompanied by whatever happiness and sorrow are discovered. If escape and return are the two ends of a road, walking even farther means drawing closer to childhood; and it’s precisely this primary force that pushes me toward the edge of the sea and sky.  \nI would like to give a special thanks to Cao Yifan—neighbor, friend, classmate—who not only plays a central role in this book but whose astonishing memory filled in and corrected a large number of crucial details. And of course I must thank Li Tuo and Gan Qi, two “fussy readers”who embolden me to write like I’m always treading on thin ice.  \nBEI DAO  \nJUNE 2 5 , 2 0 1 0 , HONG KONG  \nCity Gate, Open Up","cbCaisbsDfqRm9pm","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaisbsDfqRm9pm","pdf",3962654,272,"English","# Preface: My Beijing\n## Light and Shadow\n## Smells\n## Sounds\n## Toys and Games\n## Furniture\n## Vinyl Records\n## Fishing\n## Swimming\n## Raising Rabbits\n## Three Never Old Hutong No. 1\n## Qian Ayi\n## Reading\n## Going to Shanghai\n## Elementary School Beijing Middle No. 13\n## Beijing Middle No. 4\n## The Great Linkup\n## Father\n## Translator’s acknowledgments\n## About the author","[{\"question\":\"What triggers the author to write the book in the preface?\",\"answer\":\"The author’s return to Beijing after the father falls seriously ill ignites the impulse to rebuild a lost Beijing through writing.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the author describe the relationship between writing and memory?\",\"answer\":\"Writing awakens the process of remembering, where passages within memory’s labyrinth lead into one another and each gate opens onto another gate.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the author emphasize childhood and adolescence?\",\"answer\":\"Because those pivotal years shape or decide nearly everything that happens later, long after, and returning to them feels like an excavation of early life.\"}]","City Gate, Open Up - Preface: My Beijing | PDF",1791153127,419]